Drive means for a vessel

ABSTRACT

A drive means for a vessel comprising a circular or spherical housing adapted to be partly submerged in a body of water, the circular or spherical housing defining an air circulating chamber connected to a source of air under pressure, the housing is provided with an opening located in that portion of the housing which is submerged in the body of water to form a continuously replenished air bubble located below the housing under the water line of the body of water; and blower means are provided between the source of air under pressure and the air circulating chamber to continuously circulate air under pressure through said chamber along a gyratory path and over the opening to create a friction force or drag on the surface of the water exposed at the opening to thereby propel the vessel through the body of water.

United States; Patent 1 Palma DRIVE MEANS FOR A VESSEL James R. Palma, 1502 Curry Road, Schenectady, NY. 12306 22 Filed: Dec. 23, 1971 211 Appl. No.: 211,413

Related US. Application Data [63] Continuation-impart of Ser. No. 39,299. May 2|,

I970, abandoned.

[76] Inventor:

Primary ExaminerDuane A. Reger Assistant Examiner-Stuart M. Goldstein Attorney-John I-l. Oltman et al.

1451 July 3,1973

[57] ABSTRACT A drive means for a vessel comprising a circular or spherical housing adapted to be partly submerged in a body of water, the circular or spherical housing defining an air circulating chamber connected to a source of air under pressure, the housing is provided with an opening located in that portion of the housing which is submerged in the body of water to form a continuously replenished air bubble located below the housing under the water line of the body of water; and blower means are provided between the source of air under pressure and the air circulating chamber to continuously circulate air under pressure through said chamber along a gyratory path and over the opening to create a friction force or drag on the surface of the water exposed at the opening to thereby propel the vessel through the body of water.

5 Claims, 2 Drawing Figures DRIVE MEANS FOR A VESSEL RELATED APPLICATION BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to drive means for water conveyances and more in particular, to an air pressure friction drag drive means for a boat.

It is known to propel water born vehicles by means of a stream of air as a primary power source across a body of water. Most of these known air power driven water born vehicles, such as for instance, the well known Hoover Craft, use the air power as a lifting force to lift the vehicle off the surface of the water and propel the vehicle across the water by conventional power driven air propeller means. According to the size and weight of the vehicle, these vehicles require extremely large air power installations to provide the necessary force to lift the weight of the vehicle off the surface of the water.

Furthermore, in these known air power drive systems for water born vehicles the air power is used only to lift the vehicleabove the surface of the water, whereas for moving of the vehicle across'the water, conventional propelling means have to be added with an additional increase in weight of the vehicle requiring a further increase in the size of the air power installation.

The proposed drive system of the present invention utilizes air power only for the sole purpose of moving the vehicle across the. surface of a body of water without lifting the vehicle from the surface of the water.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present drive system for water born vehicles comprises a housing supporting at the rear end of the vessel having an air circulating chamber connected by an inlet and an outlet to a source of air under pressure. The housing extends partly through the bottom of the hull of the vessel and into the water and is provided with an opening below the water line. Mr is injected under pressure intO the housinG for circulation through the circular chamber and across the bottom opening, at which the moving airunder pressure creates an air bubble below the housing which exerts a friction drag on the surface of the water disposed at the opening, which causes the vessel to be propelled across the body of water. The moving air recirculates out of I the chamber back into the source of air under pressure. The source of air under pressure, preferrably, comprises a tank and an air compressor of suitable capacity. Blowers, likewise, of suitable capacity, are installed in the intake and outlet lines between the source of air under pressure and the drive housing. These blowers or fans are of the reversible type so as to selectively reverse the intake and outlet to enable the vessel to be propelled forward or backward.

The circular chamber of the drive housing is further connected by means of a pressure responsive valve to an additional air conduit which is likewise in communication with the source of air under pressure and with a protected storage or reserve tank to maintain an equalized pressure balance between the circular chamber of the drive housing and the source of air under pressure and to provide maintenance of air pressure within the circular chamber of the housing in case of compressor failure.

The present invention will be best understood by reference to the following detailed description in connection with the appended drawing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING The-attached drawing schematically illustrates a preferred embodiment of the present invention in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view through the drive housing and diagrammatically illustrating the related air power system in accordance with the present invention, and

FIG. 2 is a further schematic cross-section through the drive housing shown in FIG. 1 as seen along line 2-2 thereof.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT With reference to the drawing, there is schematically illustrated in phantom lines, a water vehicle, such as a boat 10, adapted to float upon and be propelled along a body of water 12 which has a surface or water line 14.

The propelling means for the boat 10 is comprised of a housing 16 which is of cylindrical shape and suitably stationarily secured to the hull of the boat 10. The housing 16 encloses a cylindrical or ring like chamber 18 formed around center hub member 20 which is attached to the oppoiste side walls 22 and 24, respectively, (FIG. 2).

The lower end portion 17 of the housing 16 extends through the bottom 11 of the hull of the boat 10 for submersion into the body of water 12. It will be understood that the bottom 11 of the hull of the boat 10 will be suitably sealed around the lower portion 17 of the drive housing 16 to prevent entrance of water into the boat 10. The lower portion 17 is provided with an opening 26 below the bottom 11 of the boat for a purpose to be explained hereafter.

The circular chamber 18 is in communication with a source of air under pressure 28 by means of a lower conduit 30 and an upper conduit 32. In FIG. 1 the lower conduit is being illustrated as an intake conduit and the upper conduit as being the outlet or return conduit. However, these positions can be reversed to drive the boat 10 either forward or backward as will be explained.

The source of air under pressure 28 comprises a tank 34 connected by a conduit 36 to a compressor 38. The compressor 38 is selected to have a compression ratio sufficient to maintain the tank pressure adequate for the size and weight of the boat 10. The tank 34 is provided, as is common practice, with a pressure relief valve 40 to permit exhaust of excess pressure from the tank 34. The conduit 30 is connected to the tank 34 by means of an adjustable two way valve 42 and a fan or blower 44. The fan or blower 44 in the conduit 30 is of sufficient capacity to move pressurized air from the tank 34 through the conduit 30 and'into the chamber 18 of the drive housing 16, and is preferrably reversible to selectively change its direction of rotation in conjunction with the position of the valve 42 so as to selectively pump pressurized air into the chamber 18 causing forward movement of the boat 10 or to exhaust pressurized air from the chamber 18 to cause backward movement of the boat 10.

Likewise, the conduit 32 is connected to the tank 34 by means of a similar two way adjustable valve 46 and a reversible blower 48, which preferrably is of the same capacity as the blower 44 to selectively exhaust pressurized air from or pump pressurized air into the circular chamber 18.

Thus, it will be clear that, if the blower 44 is operated to pump pressurized air into the circular chamber 18, the blower 48 will be operated to exhaust pressurized air from the chamber 18 and vice-versa. It will, of course, be understood that suitable control means (not shown) are provided to control operation of the blowers 44 and 48 and the compressor 38, which are of conventional nature and need not be described.

In operation, and with particular reference to FIG. 1, if the blower 44 is operated to pump pressurized air from the tank 34 into the circular chamber 18, pressurized air will flow through the conduit, as indicated by the direction of the arrows, into the circular chamber 18 downwardly and around the central hub member 20. As the pressurized air, at a speed dictated by the capacity of the blower 44, passes over the surface 14a of that portion of water exposed at or within the opening 26, an air bubble is created below the opening 26 which exerts a friction force or drag between the relatively fast moving pressurized air and the surface of the water causing a reaction force, adapted to push the boat forwardly across the body of water 12. The surface of the water is changed from that shown on FIG. 1, and extends down somewhat from the housing in full operation, as shown by the dashed line 14b.

The pressurized air, rotating within the circular chamber 18, is constantly exhausted through the conduit 32 by means of the other blower 48 for return flow into the tank 34. Thereby, a continuous stream of relatively fast moving pressurized air is being circulated through and around the circular chamber 18 and across the water surface below the opening 26 of the drive means 16 to continuously propel the boat 10 in a forward direction until the blowers are shut off or the operation be reversed.

As previously explained, the reversible blower 48 may be operated, instead of exhausting pressurized air from the circular chamber 18, to pump air into the chamber 18 in which instance the reversible blower 44 will be operated to exhaust pressurized air from the chamber 18 causing a reverse friction drag on the water surface 14a to thereby move the boat 10 backwards.

in order to maintain an equalized balanced pressure between the tank 34 and the cylindrical chamber 18 the following arrangement has been provided: The tank 34 is further connected by a conduit 50, one-way valve 52 and balance storage tank 54, to an intermediate inlet 56 leading into the chamber 18 between the conduits 30 and 32. The intermediate inlet 56 is connected for fluid communication with chamber 18 by means of a pressure responsive valve 58. Normally, that is as long as a pressure balance exists between the tank pressure and the pressure in the cylindrical chamber 18, the pressure responsive valve 58 is positioned to maintain the inlet 56 closed. The pressure responsive valve 58 acts to open the inlet upon a decrease in pressure in the cylindrical chamber 18 to permit additional admission of pressurized air into the chamber 18 from the protected storage tank 54. If equalized pressure has been restored, the valve 58 again functions to closethe inlet 56. In the meantime, the protected storage tank 54 has been replenished with pressurized air from the main tank 34, which will be maintained therein by the oneway valve 52 to be available upon a further decrease in pressure in the chamber 18.

It is evident from the foregoing description and the accompanying drawing that the present drive means for a water born vessel utilizing air pressure as its sole propelling force, provides an efficient, relatively inexpensive and relatively noiseless drive system, which, in installation, can be provided with easily operable control means In addition, the present drive means for a water born vessel completely eliminates the explosion danger connected with conventional internal combustion engine drive means.

It will be obvious that the present novel drive system lends itself to various modifications in structure and arrangement, easily visualized by the men skilled in the art to which the invention pertains and such modifications in structure and arrangement are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. Drive means for a vessel adapted to be driven across the surface of a body of water comprising: a housing having a portion thereof submerged below the surface of the body of water, a circular gas circulating chamber within said housing and in said portion of said housing submerged within said body of water, conduit means connecting said gas circulating chamber with a source of gas under pressure, blower means in said conduit means continuously circulating said gas under pressure through said chamber and past said opening causing the creation of an air bubble projecting down from said opening which exerts a friction force on the surface of the portion of the body of water exposed at said opening to thereby propel said vessel across the surface of the body of water, said conduit means comprising an inlet tube connecting said source of gas under pressure with said gas circulating chamber and an outlet tube connecting said gas circulating chamber with said source of gas under pressure.

2. In a drive means as defined in claim 1, said blower means being connectedto said inlet tube.

3. In a drive means as defined in claim 2, an additional blower means being provided at said outlet tube.

4. In a drive means as defined in claim 1, the further provision of a second conduit means disposed between said inlet tube and said outlet tube, providing a further communication between said source of gas under pressure and said gas circulating chamber and a pressure responsive valve disposed in said chamber to normally close off said second conduit towards said chamber and adapted to be opened at the occurrence of a pressure differential between said chamber and said source of gas under pressure.

5. In a drive means as defined in claim 4, said second conduit means including a storage tank in fluid communication with said source of gas under pressure.

a w w s a 

1. Drive means for a vessel adapted to be driven across the surface of a body of water comprising: a housing having a portion thereof submerged below the surface of the body of water, a circular gas circulating chamber within said housing and in said portion of said housing submerged within said body of water, conduit means connecting said gas circulating chamber with a source of gas under pressure, blower means in said conduit means continuously circulating said gas under pressure through said chamber and past said opening causing the creation of an air bubble projecting down from said opening which exerts a friction force on the surface of the portion of the body of water exposed at said opening to thereby propel said vessel across the surface of the body of water, said conduit means comprising an inlet tube connecting said source of gas under pressure with said gas circulating chamber and an outlet tube connecting said gas circulating chamber with said source of gas under pressure.
 2. In a drive means as defined in claim 1, said blower means being connected to said inlet tube.
 3. In a drive means as defined in claim 2, an additional blower means being provided at said outlet tube.
 4. In a drive means as defined in claim 1, the further provision of a second conduit means disposed between said inlet tube and said outlet tube, providing a further communication between said source of gas under pressure and said gas circulating chamber and a pressure responsive valve disposed in said chamber to normally close off said second conduit towards said chamber and adapted to be opened at the occurrence of a pressure differential between said chamber and said source of gas under pressure.
 5. In a drive means as defined in claim 4, said second conduit means including a storage tank in fluid communication with said source of gas under pressure. 